Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; -- applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as, hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple.
Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem.
The hard causes they brought unto Moses.
In which are some things hard to be understood.
Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious; fatiguing; arduous; as, a hard task; a disease hard to cure.
Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
The stag was too hard for the horse.
A power which will be always too hard for them.
Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping; as, a hard lot; hard times; hard fare; a hard winter; hard conditions or terms.
I never could drive a hard bargain.
Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character.
Not easy or agreeable to the taste; harsh; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style.
Figures harder than even the marble itself.
Rough; acid; sour, as liquors; as, hard cider.
Abrupt or explosive in utterance; not aspirated, sibilated, or pronounced with a gradual change of the organs from one position to another; -- said of certain consonants, as c in came, and g in go, as distinguished from the same letters in center, general, etc. (Pron.)
Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh; as, a hard tone.
Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition. (Painting)
a smooth finishing coat of hard fine plaster applied to the surface of rough plastering.
Hard lines
hardship; difficult conditions.
Hard money
coin or specie, as distinguished from paper money.
Hard oyster
the northern native oyster.
Hard pan
the hard stratum of earth lying beneath the soil; hence, figuratively, the firm, substantial, fundamental part or quality of anything; as, the hard pan of character, of a matter in dispute, etc. See Pan.
water, which contains lime or some mineral substance rendering it unfit for washing. See Hardness, 3.
Hard wood
wood of a solid or hard texture; as walnut, oak, ash, box, and the like, in distinction from pine, poplar, hemlock, etc.
In hard condition
in excellent condition for racing; having firm muscles; -- said of race horses.
Hard
adv.
With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly.
And prayed so hard for mercy from the prince.
My father
Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself.
With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.
Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.
So as to raise difficulties.
With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; nimbly; as, to run hard.
Close or near.
Whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
Phrases & Compounds
Hard by
; close at hand; not far off.
Hard pushed
greatly pressed; as, he was hard pushed or hard run for time, money, etc.
Hard up
closely pressed by want or necessity; without money or resources; as, hard up for amusements.